Move coal depot to save mangroves: HC

Acting on suo-motu proceedings based on Hindustan Times' reports, the Bombay high court (HC) on Monday said the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) should try to shift the area’s thermal coal depot. The depot has been linked to the destruction of mangroves in the Sewri mudflats.

Acting on suo-motu proceedings based on Hindustan Times' reports, the Bombay high court (HC) on Monday said the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT) should try to shift the area’s thermal coal depot. The depot has been linked to the destruction of mangroves in the Sewri mudflats.

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“Why don’t you consider storing the coal somewhere inside the MbPT area,” the division bench of chief justice Mohit Shah and justice Nitin Jamdar asked MbPT counsel Girish Kulkarni.

“Or else, the coal can also be directly taken to the power stations for which it is being imported,” the judges added after Kulkarni pointed out the coal is imported for thermal power plants, and is stored at MbPT coal depots temporarily before it is transported to power plants.

The HC has taken suo-motu note of two HT reports, which appeared on February 28 and March 3, highlighting the large-scale destruction of mangroves at Sewri bay because of pollution from the adjoining coal depot, and at Charkop because of large-scale illegal dumping of debris and garbage.

Earlier, the court had directed the National Environmental Engineering and Research Institute (NEERI) to send a team to both the sites and submit an inspection report along with possible remedial measures. The NEERI, in its report, concluded that Sewri’s mangroves were indeed destroyed because the coal depot had polluted both the soil and air near the mangroves.

NEERI had suggested construction of a permanent fence around the coal depot and an open trench around its periphery in order to avoid flow of coal particles. It has also suggested using a sedimentation and filtration system to ensure only filtered water goes to the sea.

On Monday, Kulkarni said that the MbPT has already started adopting the short-term remedial measures suggested by NEERI, except the construction of a permanent fence as it would require environmental clearance.

The court has now adjourned the proceedings to September 13.